Two days ago, my fifth grader left for school declaring, “Time to face global climate change!” It’s been 85, 90 degrees here. In October. By 4 pm, our house, with it’s western facing wall of windows, is a hot box. We’re steamed out of the kitchen. I’m certainly not cooking, and we’re certainly not eating in there. Also, there have been the debates. And baseball. Which = a lot of TV dinners. More

Finn loves spring: the flowers, the sun, the warm days, the bright nights. He loves snap peas and peapods, which he eats by the bagful, and he loves eating outside. Mostly he loves salmon. He talks about it all year, until that spring day when it shows up on Pietro’s table at the market, and then, if I give Finn the task of choosing the fish for the week, he will always chose salmon. Filets, steaks, smoked, fins, tail. He doesn’t care. He’d take any of it, he’d take all of it if I let him. If only I could afford it.

But the thing is, we’ve had very little salmon over the past four years. I don’t think we had salmon once last summer, and we had little in 2008 and 2009 when the local fishery was closed. Even when it returned, the season was drastically cut back and there was not much available. So not only has it been hard to find local salmon, it’s been very, very expensive. Worse: it’s been very, very hard on the fisherman.

Still, Finn remembers his pink fish. Maybe it’s the color, a vibrant memory jumping to mind, or maybe it’s the legend that ties their majestic leap to his saint. Regardless, now it’s spring, and the salmon are back, and when I saw the piles of bright filets and steaks, their glistening, silvery skin, and Finn stood next to me eyeing the bounty with a gasp and a smile, I grabbed a cool, heavy package. It was pricey; I didn’t think about the price. Big agriculture is pumping poison into chicken, and in the face of that insanity, I will gladly pay Pietro for this treasure, caught off a boat docked 30 minutes from my house, a boat Finn as seen and touched. We have waited for this. We know exactly what it’s worth: for Pietro, for the sea, on our table. Even Finn understands: it’s worth the wait. It’s worth paying for.

Half citrus pasta, half fettucine alfredo, this recipe is a delicious mash up. Inspired by the bright, cool spring we’re having–sunny days cut through with crisp wind–a pound of fresh lemon pepper pasta, a carton of heavy cream, two older recipes (here and here), and the bag and bags of lemons we continue to harvest.

It’s everything the paradox of a spring evening wants: fresh, vibrant flavor, and a warm, rich cream to take the edge off the chill. For a few minutes, we gathered around the counter, slurping noodles in silence, soothed and energized all at once. Sometimes, there’s balance.

Lemon Pepper Pasta with Parmesan Lemon Cream Sauce

1 lb fresh lemon pepper pasta, or fresh fettucine

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter

zest of one eureka (or meyer) lemon

3/4 cup grated parmesan or grana padano

While waiting for pasta water to boil, pour cream into a large, heavy bottomed skillet.

Zest the lemon into the cream, add butter and heat slowly until butter melts and cream thickens slightly. Turn off heat and let rest.

When pasta is done, drain and add it to the lemon cream along with the parmesan.

Over medium-low heat, toss the pasta in the cream for about a minute to mix thoroughly and let pasta absorb the sauce. Serve immediately with additional parmesan, if desired.

We’ve been making this fabulous recipe for a while now, and every time, I complain about the recipe format. So I’m rewriting it here mostly for my own benefit, really, but if you’re looking for an excellent vegan brownie, look no further. Vegan Brownies Preheat oven to 350 Line an 8×8 square baking pan with(…)

Remember when I wrote last week about being so inspired by recipes in magazines? It happened again, all because of the glorious picture I’ve posted above. The recipe, once you look at it closely, is nothing fancy or complicated at all. Polenta, made a little richer with milk rather than all water. Mushrooms, both fresh(…)

I have over a hundred cookbooks, but there’s something so enticing about a recipe in a magazine. It’s beautifully photographed. It’s alone — not buried in a book full of other recipes — and yet often accompanied by recipes to make a whole meal. And did I mention the beautiful photography? I tear recipes out(…)

The Second Annual Food & Farm Film Fest is coming to San Francisco’s Roxie Theater; check out the amazing line-up here, including a short film about siracha, a feature-length documentary about honeybees, and a festival-closing program of three films on chocolate and coffee. Each screening is accompanied by a great-looking menu.

Last year it was Baked Alaska, while the year before it was a more tropical Key Lime pie. One year he asked for a very lemon layer cake and one year he even drew me a diagram of the cake he wanted. This year, Ben made his decision early and never wavered: blueberry pie for(…)

Californians: Does your child’s school serve a particularly good lunch? Take a picture and enter this contest hosted by The California Farm to School Network. Follow this link for complete details on how to enter.

Food is love, they say and I do believe. I aspire to family meals prepared and shared with love. But sometimes family meals take a rougher road to the table. Sometimes the cooking is a hasty chop-heat-stir-and-serve, and sometimes it’s even worse, a pot-crashing, ingredient-flinging, plate-slamming scene. So it was the other night. There was(…)

A Year Ago

2018-09-15 No articles on this date.

Two Years Ago

September 15, 2017 No articles on this date.

“A child should be encouraged, not discouraged as so many are, to look at what he eats, and think about it.”